Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-04-14
AN ANSWER BY FIRE.
Reasons for Relieving the Bible to BE &
Revelation from God.

Reasons for Relieving the Bible to BE .
Revelation from God.
A correspondent has written asking
this questions: What general reason
have you for believing the Bible to be
true book: tina. is. for believing that
it reveals to us the only true God?"
Then our correspondent adds: when
Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal
he met them with demonstration tina.
was irresistible. If we had such DEM
onstration Of the Bible we would have
no difficulty in convincing unbe,ievers.
What have we instead of this miracle
of fire."
In answer we would say that the
moral demonstrations of the truth of
the Bible are quite as convincing to
those who desire to know the truth. as
fire from Heaven would be. For those
who do not believe in the Bible nor
worship the God of the Bible because
they do not want to believe and
worship. nothing would convince them.
not even though one should rise from
the dead. Elijah met vast host of
undecided. half persuaded people who
had been deluded and deceived by the
false prophets, and led away from the
worship of Jehovah b. an almost uni
versal apostasy of the nation. Elijah
sought 10 recall them to the worship IF
God. He made a fair and rational pro-
position To them. II the Lord be God
then follow him: bat if Baal. then fol-
low him. He proposed demonstra-
tion by fire. which even the priests OF
Baal accepted. Two sacrifices were TO
be offered. the one by Elijah and the
other by the Priests of B,al. the latter
to have the precedence in the test; the
God who answered by fire from Heaven
and consumed the sacrifice was to be
proclaimed the true and only God.
This teS: was made and the fire de-
scended upon Eijah's Offering. Blu.
what test have we t. Offer To the peo-
pie? How can We make So good and
,,nanswerable demonstration rs did
Elijah? We think we have an answer
that is equally Is sure demonstration
rs that which Elijah gave to Israel.
The Bible IS itself an answer BY fire.
If fire from H .aven has no. come down
upon the Bible the Bible has been pu.
i'm the fire of critical testings along
with all other pretended Bibles. and
has come ont of the fire unconsumed.
l, has passed through more and seyerer
tests than any other book. and Yet ii
survives; IL il were not Divine book
it would have been cast ont of the con-
fidence of men long ago. The fact is.
the Bible can no. be accounted for
on any mere human hypothesis.
Neither fraud nor fanat;cism can ac-
count for il. Bad men could no;
and would not have written such
a book; and it is safe to say that good
men would not have written such =
book and declared il to be a true
record of fact. or of what they were
moved to write if they had not been so
moved. Pious fraud is oct of the ques-
tion. for there can not be pious fraud.
If we go to the only other hypothesis
to account for the Bible (other than
it was given by inspiration from Col
we are driven to accept the theory
that it was written by fools or fanatics:
but it is far more difficult tO believe
that either fools or fanatics could have
written the Bible. including the inven-
ton of the character of Jesus Christ,
than to believe that God gave US the
Book through the men of old whom He
moved by His Holy Spirit to write and
speak the things therein recorded.
The people of God themselves are a
demonstration of the truth of the God
of the Bible. The Jews are an ever
present and living miracle testifying 10
the truth of the Bible. They can not be
accounted for apart from the Bible.
They are inseparably connected with
the history of the Bible; not with the
ethics and theology Of the Bible, for they
have practically abandoned both. but
with the very supernatural history Of